Workforce Central Florida may sue state

Jim Stratton, Orlando Sentinel

Workforce Central Florida, the agency facing both state and federal investigations, is considering suing the state, but the taxpayer-funded organization has not disclosed which office it might sue or the nature of the legal challenge.

Last week, a Workforce vice president wrote in an email to a topOrange County staff member that the agency wanted to speak withOrange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. Workforce Senior Vice President for Public Affairs Larry Strickler said he wanted to brief Jacobs and other officials about the possible lawsuit before word of the action leaked out.

"I need to advise her of possible legal action WCF may take against the State," Strickler wrote in an email to Jacobs' chief of staff Graciela Noriega Jacoby. "I need to briefly explain the issue and our plans to deal with it. I would like the Mayor and other County Chairs in our region to hear this from us before they might get some slanted version from the local media."

Jacobs did not meet with Strickler, but he did speak to Noriega Jacoby on Friday. She said Strickler told her very little about Workforce's plans.

"He informed me that WCF was considering legal action, and if it were to come to fruition, he would circle-back and provide details on the issue," Noriega Jacoby wrote in an email. "Details of the pending legal action were not discussed."

Emails to Strickler, Workforce spokesman Kim Sullivan and Workforce President and CEO Gary Earl were not returned as of Friday evening.

Workforce, a five-county agency charged with tending Central Florida's labor landscape, received almost $24 million last year in public funding. It has come under blistering criticism in the past few months for its spending and its practice of allowing businesses controlled by or tied to board members to receive agency contracts.

A state inspector general blasted the agency for its ill-fated "Cape-A-Bility Challenge" public relations campaign – which proposed handing out red, silky capes to the unemployed – and is probing the agency's purchase of a small fleet of vehicles.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor is investigating Workforce Central Florida and 23 other regional workforce boards to determine if they improperly awarded contracts to companies tied to board members. A similar state inspector general probe has been put on hold.

The Orlando Sentinel found that Workforce Central Florida, which has already received a Labor Department subpoena, has paid businesses and organizations associated with board members more than $1 million in the past six years.

Some of the deals -- those with Progress Energy and the University of Central Florida, for example -- were routine and offered little or no direct benefit to the board member involved. But others boosted the bottom lines of companies where board members served as owners or executives.

The money paid for everything from office furniture to promotional items to computer software. The agency, which says it followed all existing regulations, voted in June to end the practice of allowing board members from private, for-profit ventures to compete for agency contracts.

It could not be determined Friday if the possible lawsuit is in any way related to the ongoing state investigation.